Experience Through Language (Image)

A description or representation of something. The opinion or concept of something that is held by the public or a character projected to us, by the public, by a person, or institution, especially by the mass media. These are all meanings of the word image.

An image is used by composers, in movies, articles and stories to help shape and alter our personal opinions of the world. This means that the way we see things can be altered because of the way something is portrayed in an image that is created for our viewing. “The Truman Show” created by Peter Weir creates two worlds within this film; meaning more than one image is portrayed. One image is the world of Truman Burbank, what he sees and what he experiences, the other, that of the viewers world, the audience watching the program. But, again, there is more than one audience. One audience is that off Peter Weir which includes the people on the outside of the film. In addition, Christof the creator of “The Truman Show” has his own audience within the film itself. They are the people that appear in the film watching the show. There were many techniques used by both Weir and Christof to present images. Camera movements and angles, costume design, and dialogue help to manipulate both audiences throughout the film. The first images we are presented with are the start of the television program “The Truman Show” created by Christof is him himself on the screen. He sits as if in mid interview positioning talking to the audience about Truman. The opening can in other words be described as a mock documentary. A close-up shot is used on his head and shoulders. This close up allows the audiences to show a suggested quality of intelligence because of Christof’s glasses, and also makes him appear sincere and an expert on Truman. Christof States: “We've become bored with watching actors give us phoney emotions. We are tired of pyrotechnics and special effects. While the world he inhabits is, in some respects, counterfeit, there's nothing fake about Truman himself. No scripts, no cue cards. It isn't always Shakespeare, but it's genuine. It's a life.” The statement above automatically manipulates the audience and an image is straight away formed. Audiences may believe that there is an actual truth behind Truman, rather than it just being a life time lived out by actors and a script, which is of course all unknown to Truman. Not long after this scene is showed, Marlon, Meryl and again Christof talk to the camera and these interviews are constantly cut off with the images of Truman performing in front of the mirror. Meryl (Truman’s Wife) speaks using many clichés which makes her seem fake, almost doll like. This helps to shape her image for the audience as “plastic”, and a person with no real emotion or an “ice queen!” Marlon (Truman’s best friend) is introduced and he soon contradicts the image that the audience was first presented with as he states: “Nothing you see is faked. It is merely controlled.” This is other wise known as irony. It supports the whole concept that everything is fake as well as the film itself. Weir uses many medium shots which allow us to see the “set”/landscape behind the characters of the television show. This represents a documentary style show. But, when Truman is being filmed in the bathroom close up and over head shots are used. These both help to show Truman’s emotions and they also be little him, presenting viewers with the image that Truman as someone who has very little, in fact, no control or power over his own life. This scene shows Truman‘s eye and his face as he speaks to a mirror. Truman looks as like he is looking straight into the camera, when really, he is unaware that there is one planted in his mirror. The camera zooms out and we see the head shot of him. This alters the viewers perceptions of “The Truman Show” as it suggests that maybe Truman is ‘trapped’ in a world, while the dialogue that he speaks seems to suggest he is playing a role,...

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Effects of Language on Perceptions and Experiences
Jaclyn Caserta
University of North Carolina Greensboro
2 December 2014
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